A Transforming Mom

I am having trouble my youngest son who is four. I would love to transform him into a better behaved child. I am really putting a lot of thought what I can do to decrease his tantrums and outbursts. I decided yesterday on a behavior chart—simple handwritten chart with the two goals I have for him:

Listen to and obey parents and teachers.

Do not get angry when little things don’t go your way.

I drew little pictures to go with each–an ear for the first to listen and a face with a jagged smile to show anger and an X over it for the second rule. I have small gold star stickers and anytime I feel he is especially good, I give him a star. I will give him something special, an app or a visit to the dollar store or the yogurt shop once he gets ten stars.

I am talking to him in calm moments and doing timeouts. I am reading up on what might work and talking about it with my mom friends for advice. The advice I’ve gotten:

Put him in a team sport. I have him in swim, but this mom thinks being on a team would help. I worry that his behavior would frustrate me further in that setting so I may hold off just a bit longer.

Make sure he gets enough sleep, exercise and eats right…which is always good advice.

Pray and give space for God to do his work.

And, the best advice I received was not to worry about transforming him as much as transforming myself. Am I doing everything to keep myself healthy and equipped for the trenches of motherhood?

I have a child who seems to anger way too easily about such minute things and who lately has tantrums daily. However, I am grateful for these aspects his behavior:

He is not physically aggressive and does not harm others.

The fits don’t last too long—no more than five minutes and he apologizes after and does want to learn to control them.

He is still a loving child and very affectionate, just has hasn’t learned yet to manage his feelings.

Today I release the focus from my boy and put it on myself. Today I will work to transform my habits and health in the best possible direction so that I can be at my best. When I am at my worst—his anger makes me an angry mom and that’s not what I want for us.

What do you do to transform/take care of yourself so that you can handle the tougher parenting days?